A New Life
by benbrattlover
Summary: COMPLETE! Post-series fic! Now that Emily's mission of revenge is complete and was successful beyond her wildest dreams, what is next for her in her life? Had posted this about a year (or so) ago, but I had to delete & repost it in order to get rid of a NASTY & IRRELEVANT SPAM review! (see above in profile section)
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: First & foremost, I know that I have NO right to be starting a new fanfic, when I already have so many incomplete (for months/years) fanfics that need to be finished. But unfortunately I have been having MAJOR writer's block when it comes to those fics, and though I DO plan to finish them EVENTUALLY - in the meantime, instead of waiting to finish the current fics (which may not happen for a while) before posting new fanfics, I'm just going to go ahead and write & post other fics I've been thinking of, for various (including NEW) fandoms.

I just want to let my readers know that this isn't the way I wrote my story, but every time I upload it, the site changes my indentation, tabs, paragraphs, line spacing, fonts, etc. I know it looks really sloppy but this is not the way I wrote it, yet I can't figure out how to get the site to return my stories to their original format, so please bear with me, and excuse me. If you have any idea how I can get the site to keep, and post the stories in the original format with the same indentations, tabs, paragraphs, line spacing, fonts, etc., please tell me. You can email me at: benbrattlover at gmail dot com.

Please read and review. Be kind, yet please give me honest feedback. If you have a negative comment, it is okay to post it, but also include some practical suggestions on how I could make the story better. I love to write stories and poems and I want to be a good writer so I don't mind negative comments as long as they are not flames. Positive and/or helpful advice and pointers are appreciated and welcomed. Negative, AND unconstructive feedback is not, and will be deleted. Otherwise, feel free to write what you think, with the exception of flames. Thank you!

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I don't own any of the characters, except for the ones that I create. The "Revenge" characters belong to Mike Kelley, Alexandre Dumas, Marty C. Bowen, Gordon Wyck Godfrey, Phillip Noyce, Randy Sutter, Samantha Thomas, Melissa Loy, Joe Fazzio, Ted Babcock, Page Fright Productions, Mike Kelley Productions, Temple Hill Productions, ABC Studios, and any & all the other creators, writers, producers and directors of this TV show. But I've written this story, I own this story, and all the others that I write, or have written. Please do not use, copy, post elsewhere, or reproduce it in any way, shape, or form without my permission. Thanks!

Summary: Post-series (of course since the series just started, how it will eventually end, is still a mystery.) This fic is set in a time AFTER the end [whenever it is] and assumes that Emily/Amanda has successfully managed to get revenge on those she held responsible, and that she was able to get away with it. This fic is/will be about what happens afterwards, what Emily's life is like and what happens/what she does with her life after her mission of revenge is complete.

Rating: PG to PG-13. Deals with revenge and *may* include scenes of violence (not sure about that yet). May not be suitable for younger readers.

Contact: Any extra comments (beyond the review) questions, or concerns, Email me at: benbrattlover at gmail dot com.

Enjoy & after you're done, please click the link at the bottom of the page to leave me a review! :)

* * *

She had done it. She had successfully gotten revenge on all the rich & powerful people who had destroyed her family and ruined her life.

Emily Thorne smiled in wicked glee as she picked up the wooden "Infinity" box that had started it all, holding it in her hands as she sank into a chair in the living room, one of the few pieces of furniture left in the now nearly-barren beach-house in the Hamptons. Yes, she, little Amanda Clarke, had done it. She had succeeded in getting her revenge against the Graysons and everyone else in this wealthy but yet morally-bankrupt little enclave. Everyone who had taken part in framing her father, David, for a crime he did NOT commit, while Amanda was robbed of her childhood, being locked up for no reason, and left to rot in a juvenile detention institution for over a decade, had FINALLY been made to pay. All those who were responsible for sending her innocent father to prison, leading to his premature & senseless death, had seen their careers, families, and lives destroyed, just as Amanda's and her father's had been, over a decade earlier.

But she had gotten back at ALL of them. Conrad & Victoria Grayson were divorcing in the midst of a very public infidelity scandal, and they were also facing felony charges in connection with the kidnapping of Dr. Michelle Banks. The Grayson's prized Hampton beach house, along with several of their other properties was now up for sale, in part, to pay for their enormous, and skyrocketing legal bills. Victoria was completely estranged from her daughter, Charlotte, who had refused to remain at home, and instead had moved in with friends. And Charlotte had not spoken to (and was refusing to speak with) her mother ever since the video of the therapy session with Dr. Banks, in which Victoria admitted she wished Charlotte had never been born, had been screened publicly at the Mental Health Benefit tea party. And Dr. Banks's psychology practice had collapsed and her career was over, along with the careers of Bill Harmon and Senator Tom Kingsly, who himself was also facing felony charges in connection with the large quantity of cocaine , heroin & methamphetamines mysteriously found in the trunk of his car after a anonymous tip led to a police search.

"I did it, Daddy!" Emily murmured softly, staring at the childhood photo of herself with her father and her dog, Sammy that she kept in the wooden "Infinity" box that her father had left for her – the same box that Nolan had presented to her, outside the juvenile detention center where she'd spent the majority of her miserable childhood, locked away, through NO fault of her own, left to rot behind bars, unloved, unwanted and forgotten for over a decade. "I did it. I FINALLY made them all PAY for what they did to us! The Graysons, Bill Harmon, Tom Kingsly, Dr. Banks, all of them! I finally made them pay, Daddy!"

Emily looked around the nearly empty room, as she packed the wooden "Infinity" box, into a cardboard moving box. The movers would be coming the next morning to pick up the remaining furniture & possessions that would be going with her to her new place. The rest of her stuff had already been moved into storage for the time being – at least until she decided where she wanted to settle long-term.

In the meantime, she had rented an apartment in Manhattan, actually Central Park West, to be precise. Now that her mission of revenge was complete, Emily had no need, nor any desire to remain in the area. Jack was gone, he had sold "The Stow-Away Bar", had bought his boat "The Amanda" back from Nolan, and had sailed away with Sammy, to Haiti, as he'd once planned. Yes, there was nothing keeping her here in the Hamptons any longer and it was time to leave town. Though she was retaining ownership of the beach house in the Hamptons, she was renting it out as an unfurnished long-term rental property. She did not want to sell it, because of the sentimental value, and emotional ties to her lost & stolen childhood, but she could no longer bear to BE in the house itself. Too many memories, too many flashbacks of her father, and the life with him that she was robbed of. It was just time to move on.

Emily stood up, and stretching her legs, walked over to the window, looking out to the Graysons mansion next door. Though the porch lights were on, the interior of the house was pitch-black, with NO signs of life or activity whatsoever. With a satisfied sigh, Emily turned away from the window and headed to bed...


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:** See previous chapter!

**Summary:** Post-series (of course since the series just started, how it will eventually end, is still a mystery.) This fic is set in a time AFTER the end [whenever it is] and assumes that Emily/Amanda has successfully managed to get revenge on those she held responsible, and that she was able to get away with it. This fic is/will be about what happens afterwards, what Emily's life is like and what happens/what she does with her life after her mission of revenge is complete.

Also since I don't know how long it takes to complete the courses to become a private investigator, for this fanfic, just assume that either it only takes two months OR assume that Emily doubled up on the course-load to complete it in that time-frame.

**Recap (Previously on "A New Life"):** After her mission of revenge against those who had framed her father and destroyed her childhood & her family was successfully completed, Emily Thorne (formerly Amanda Clarke) had left the Hamptons, renting out the beach-house she'd bought, and moved to Manhattan, renting an apartment on Central Park West.

**Setting: **Manhattan, New York. Five months after the time set in Chapter 1

**Rating:** PG to PG-13. Deals with revenge and *may* include scenes of violence (not sure about that yet). May not be suitable for younger readers.

**Contact:** Any extra comments (beyond the review) questions, or concerns, Email me at: benbrattlover at gmail dot com.

Enjoy & after you're done, please click the link at the bottom of the page to leave me a review! :)

* * *

Emily Thorne leaned back in her leather executive office chair with a sigh, as her latest new client for the new business left the office at the end of her appointment.

The client, a woman by the name of Eleanor Finchley, wanted revenge against her husband who was soon to be served with divorce papers, after Mrs. Finchley found him in bed, with her 12 year old daughter Melody. But a divorce, and even a criminal child molestation & child rape prosecution was not enough for Mrs. Finchley, when after her husband's arrest, she had discovered from Melody that the man, her stepfather, had been secretly molesting and raping her for the past 7 years, and he had intimidated, traumatized & frightened Melody into silence by threatening the lives of her & her mother.

Emily leaned back in her chair, thinking of the case she'd just gotten, and mulling over how to proceed and expose the man for the perverted sicko pedophile he was.

It was EXACTLY these kinds of cases – those involving innocent children, that really got to Emily the most, and made her the most bent on revenge. Likely due to her own experiences and being robbed of her chance at a happy childhood, cases where other children were similarly robbed & hurt/victimized by others, made Emily's blood boil and focus on getting revenge, and making those responsible suffer.

After reading through the case-file, Emily was determined to destroy Mr. Finchley's life, the way that he had destroyed the childhood & innocence of his step-daughter. She wanted to make Mr. Finchley suffer, but yet at the same time, she did NOT want the abused young girl to be further harmed having to endure the trauma of a trial, and being interrogated on the witness stand by zealous defense attorneys who in all likelihood would try to paint her as a manipulative & precocious sex-obsessed pre-teen who had seduced her stepfather to get back at her mother for remarrying. Thus, Emily wanted and needed to exact revenge on Mr. Finchley in such a way that either he would be charged with other serious enough crimes to be sentenced to an equivalent penalty that he would have otherwise gotten for his crimes against Melody, OR in an even better scenario, he would get an even WORSE penalty than he would have gotten for his crimes against Melody and/or that the vengeance Emily brought down upon Mr. Finchley would so destructive that he'd be **DESPERATE** to make a full confession, thereby sparing young Melody the trauma of a public trial.

As she was pondering the Finchley case, Emily's mind began to wander, thinking about her life over the previous 5 months since leaving the Hamptons. After moving to Manhattan, Emily spent a month relaxing, and enjoying the city – and though the wealth her father had left her, more than ensured she could be a "lady of leisure", having a comfortable, if not even luxurious life, without the necessity of having to work for a living, Emily did NOT want that kind of life. She did NOT want to be like the rich society ladies she had encountered in the Hamptons – women whose life was nothing but show & glitz, who spent all their time just going to parties, playing golf, or sailing on yachts. All fluff & fancies, but nothing solid underneath. Emily wanted something more than the frivolous, jet-setting lifestyle of the ultra-rich.

So after about a month of taking it easy in New York City, Emily had started training to be a private investigator. But that was just a front, or more precisely, it was just the career that Emily portrayed to the public. But it was her related, secret sideline business that was her REAL business, and her REAL passion, and a business which had brought Mrs. Finchley to Emily's office.

After the wild success of her revenge plot against those in the Hamptons, Emily Thorne had started "Sweet Revenge" - a "revenge-for-hire" business in which she used her PI skills & her expertise/experience in revenge to get back at those who had preyed on & victimized her clients. She also taught a very limited number of select trusted clients the art of successful revenge. And Emily's tactics in the revenge-for-hire business were the same as in the Hamptons, where, with the exception of the kidnapping of Dr. Banks, all the revenge tactics just skirted the letter of the law, pushing the envelope but never really crossing it. Yet, because of the secret nature of her business, her clientele mostly all came through word-of-mouth, and Emily did NOT advertise this side of her business – ONLY just advertising her career as a private investigator.

On the surface, in public, Emily looked to be no different than any other big-city PI investigating cheating spouses and the like. But Emily WAS different. The miserable childhood spent locked away behind bars in a juvenile detention institution & separated from her father for no reason, as well as her time in the Hamptons had taught Emily that she was NOT and would never again be the same person she once was. She used to be Amanda Clarke, a happy little girl who lived and loved (and was loved by) her father until her childhood and her happy life was shattered forever. Amanda Clarke was dead, and she had left Emily Thorne in her place. And Emily chose to translate her expertise in revenge into a very lucrative business that together with her P.I. career kept her pretty busy, and left little time for moping or dwelling on all that she had lost.

Nevertheless, Emily still did make time on occasion to check up on those responsible for the destruction of her childhood & her family, and keep tabs on all their lives, and situations, like she had done earlier this morning just before her first appointment of the day. Sitting at the desk in her office, she had surfed the Web, looking for the latest news about the Graysons, Bill Harmon, Tom Kingsly, Michelle Banks, and all the others in the Hamptons. What she found in her search satisfied her immensely and she smiled in glee.

The Graysons were stuck in a very bitter public divorce, and their trial on kidnapping charges would be starting in a few weeks. If they were convicted, they faced up to life in prison. The costs of their mounting legal bills had wiped them out, and they were now, for all intents & purposes, virtually bankrupt. Their bank and other financial accounts had been frozen upon their arrest & arraignment on kidnapping charges in the fear that Graysons would use their wealth to jump bail and flee the jurisdiction, even the country itself. The Graysons were desperately trying to sell their home in the Hamptons, as well as other properties, but had only very recently discovered, to their horror, that the government had also attached liens on all their real estate properties & cars, so that they couldn't sell those either. As such, Victoria had been forced to resort to hocking her jewelry and countless expensive household furnishings & personal items, in order to raise funds to cover their legal bills, and other expenses.

As for Bill Harmon, his investment firm had completely collapsed, and he'd been served with a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by all the clients who had lost their assets. He himself was now broke too, having declared bankruptcy last month. Meanwhile, Tom Kingsly had been convicted on all charges of felony drug trafficking and because of the large quantity of drugs found in the trunk of his car, he had been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. And last but not least...Dr. Michelle Banks. The court-appointed psychologist whose corruption had led to Amanda spending most of her childhood rotting behind bars in a juvenile detention institution, for no reason, had finally gotten a taste of her own medicine. When the effects of having her career destroyed (after she was publicly exposed for videotaping clients confidential therapy sessions) as well as being kidnapped and held in a storage unit, took its toll, Dr. Banks had a nervous breakdown. She blamed the Graysons for the end of her career, and her kidnapping, and after she broke into the Grayson's home, armed with a knife, and tried to attack Victoria, Dr. Banks was involuntarily committed to the state mental institution, where she suffered a COMPLETE psychotic break. She now spent her days, virtually catatonic, sitting in a padded room wearing a straightjacket, and rhythmically rocking back & forth as she muttered & grumbled angrily to herself and cursing out the Graysons, blaming them for her predicament & all her problems.

Emily giggled to herself in satisfaction as she read about the latest misfortunes to befall all those once rich & powerful people who had destroyed her family and her childhood/

After the appointment with Mrs. Finchley, Emily met another potential new client, Jesse Liggett, a gentlemen, who looked to be in his mid to late 50s, and her her heart nearly stopped, when she heard his story. As a young man in his 20's, Mr. Liggett had been arrested, and had spent 32 years in prison for a crime he did NOT commit, but rather had been framed for, by the jilted, former fiance of a woman he had loved and ended up marrying. Even though recent DNA testing (which had been unavailable at the time of his arrest & trial) as well as other exculpatory evidence that was deliberately suppressed by the prosecutor for political & financial gain, had finally proven Mr. Liggett's innocence, and led to his complete exoneration, the man wanted revenge for all the assaults, rapes & other trauma he'd suffered in the over 3 decades spent in prison, as well as for having over half his life robbed from him. Just like Emily a year or so earlier, he wanted revenge against the man who had framed him, and the prosecutor whose corruption (and deliberate suppression of evidence that would have cleared him) led to his wrongful conviction and 30+ years of his life lost behind bars. He especially wanted revenge against the woman who had abandoned him in his time of need, taking their daughter away when he was arrested, and completely severing all contact once he was convicted. His daughter would be in her early 30s now, but he had not seen or heard from her since she was a very little girl.

Stunned by the similarities between Mr. Liggett's case and her father's, Emily immediately agreed to take his case. Emily then spent the rest of the day, with a parade of clients, ranging from those wanting to get revenge on cheating spouses or lovers, to employees who'd been wrongly/unfairly fired from their jobs and wanted to get revenge on their bosses and/or the companies they had once worked for.

That evening, as Emily was about to leave for the day, there was a soft knock at the door.

"Yes?" called out Emily. "Who is it?"

The door opened, and Emily's assistant & secretary, Stacy Watkins popped her head inside. "Ms. Thorne, there's a woman here to see you. She doesn't have an appointment, and I told her that you only take people by appointment, and you're getting to leave for the night but she won't take no for answer. I can call security if you want..." trailed off Stacy, wordlessly.

Emily sighed, heading back over to her desk. "Nah that's okay, Stacy," she replied. "Just give me a couple minutes, and then show her in. Thanks!"

As Stacy went back to the outer office, Emily settled herself behind her desk, once again. A couple minutes later as instructed, Stacy knocked at the door.

"Come in." Emily called out, as the door opened and Stacy ushered in a young woman, fairly tall, willowy and slender, at 5 foot 6, and 125 pounds. She had a slightly tanned or olive complexion, chest jet-black hair that was pulled into a French braid, and piercing deep blue eyes.

Emily stood up behind her desk, extending her hand. "Hi, I'm Emily Thorne. Can I help you?"

The woman shook Emily's hand. "Yes, I am Monica Hidalgo, and I got your name through a good friend. I'm here because I want to get revenge on someone..."

To be Continued (stay tuned for the sequel, tentatively titled, "Sweet Revenge")


End file.
